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Amanda Campbell
Four-year-old Amanda was last seen near her family's residence in Fairfield, California on December 27, 1991. She had been at a friend's house four doors down from her home when left her brother and a friend between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. to ride her bicycle to another friend's house around the corner, eight doors from home. Amanda never arrived and has not been seen again. Her bicycle was found abandoned a few blocks from her home later that evening. An extensive search of the area failed to locate her. A pair of child-sized blue socks were located in the street, however; it is unknown if they belonged to her. Dogs tracked Amanda's scent from Larchmont Drive to Oliver Road, to the drive-through at a nearby McDonald's restaurant, then east on Travis Boulevard to the westbound Interstate 80 on-ramp. Authorities believe she was pulled into a vehicle, probably at Larchmont Drive and Salisbury Drive. Two men have been named as possible suspects in Amanda's case. A man named Timothy Bindner had a possible connection to her disappearance, as well as the disappearances of Ilene Misheloff, Tara Cossey and Michaela Garecht. However, he maintains his innocence and he successfully sued Amanda's hometown of Fairfield, California in 1997 for defamation of character. Bindner (a married sewage treatment plant worker) came to authorities' attention after he began sending birthday greetings to young girls in the East Bay area. One child's parents contacted authorities and handed over a letter that Bindner had written to their daughter. The note was printed backwards and could only be deciphered by holding it up to a mirror. Bindner claimed that he sent the cards as a kind gesture because the girls were "lonely." Bindner also visited the Oakmont Cemetery gravesite of a five-year-old girl named Angela Bugay, who was abducted and murdered in Antioch, California in 1983. He was never considered a suspect in her murder and another man has since been arrested in that case. For many years, Bindner was also considered a suspect in the June 1988 disappearance of Amber Swartz-Garcia from Pinole, California. He approached many of the mothers of missing girls from the East Bay area offering his assistance, including Amber and Michaela Garecht's families. Investigators asked Amber's mother to maintain a quasi-friendship with Bindner in hope of learning if he was connected to any of the girls' cases. She and authorities agreed that Bindner appeared to playing mind games with victims' loved ones and law enforcement. Many people theorize that Bindner enjoyed taunting families into thinking that he may have been involved in the presumed abductions. He was once arrested for annoying two little girls whom he was trying to lure into his van, but the charges were later dropped. Bindner often drove around in a light blue Dodge van with a license plate that said "Lov You." Inside the van was wallpapered with many pictures of children. A photograph of the van is posted with this case summary. Bindner refers to himself as a "good Samaritan." He asked Linda Golston, a reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, to interview him at Oakmont Cemetery at 4:30 a.m. He played his favorite song on her car stereo, "Jesus, Here's Another Child To Hold." Bindner told Goldston that he thought of the missing girls as "his children." She asked him how he believed the abductions occurred and he said one child was submissive, but another fought back against her assailant. He added that he was "guessing" about the girls' reactions. In the late '80s, Bindner wrote a letter to a law enforcement agency, stating that he believed the next girl who would be abducted from the area would be about 9 years old; Michaela Garecht disappeared shortly thereafter; she was nine at the time of her abduction. Bindner also sent a holiday card to a profiler for the FBI in 1990; the card depicted an image of a young girl holding up four fingers. Amanda vanished in 1991 at the age of four. Search dogs traced Amanda and Amber's scent to Bugay's grave and authorities never had enough evidence to prove Bindner was connected to their cases, although he was known for visiting the cemetery on occasion. Bindner was given a heroism award by the California State Patrol after assisting victims in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. He has never been charged in any of the cases. Curtis Dean Anderson (who was convicted of the 2000 kidnapping and molestation of a young California girl) was also mentioned as a possible suspect in Amanda's case. Investigators searched Anderson's mother's residence in June of 2001 for evidence linking him to other missing girls' cases, but nothing was located. However in 2009, authorities announced that Anderson had confessed to Amber's murder a month before he died in prison in 2007, and they were closing her case and ending the search for her. Police spent eighteen months investigating his statement and couldn't find any evidence to refute it. He is also considered a suspect in the 1999 disappearance of Karla Rodriguez. As of 2018, Amanda has never been located. Foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved. Description Amanda is described as a Caucasian female with blonde hair, blue eyes, is 3'5 and weighs 59 pounds. She has facial dimples and light brown moles located on her forehead & near her nose. She has pierced ears and occasionally develops a rash around her mouth. Amanda was last seen a pink nylon jacket with the sleeves too short, purple corduroy pants, a dark purple short-sleeved shirt, white sneakers with pink trim, and Santa Claus earrings. Category:Missing by Year Category:1991